Hailey (the cat)and I head south in the winter to explore the back roads, deserts, coasts, forests, beaches, of the southern US! I 'graduated' from full time work, and have been enjoying the complete freedom ever since. I expect to be in southern climes during the winter times and all over Alberta and Canada during the summer. Come along for the ride. (Photo is of former co-pilot Harley).

Friday, June 02, 2017

North–on the Klondike Highway

After a few days spent in the Whitehorse area, it was time to move on – north!

A little red fox was hanging around roadside, trying for his 15 minutes of fame on worldwide internet. Well here it is …!

I headed north out of Whitehorse, on the Klondike highway #2, ready for a day of adventure. About 30 km north, my truck informed me that it was suffering from a rapid tire deflation problem . I pulled off the road to check and found that it had ingested a large lag bolt right through the tread, just as a sprinkle of rain started. No worries; dug out my jack and tire iron, and got the jack under before it had a chance to go completely flat. Unfortunately, the spare tire would not come completely loose from it’s hiding spot under the rear. No amount of kicking, twisting, or cursing would free it from it’s lair. Seemed to me like a good time to try out my never-used roadside assistance plan from Onstar. A quick press of the ‘blue button’ soon had me chatting with a friendly service advisor, who soon had Dave from Action towing on his way for the rescue. After more grunting, and kicking and a liberal dose of WD-40, the spare finally gave up it’s resistance, and I changed the tire without further ado. But now, it was back into Whitehorse, to get the lag bolt surgically removed, and it turned out that I needed propane anyway. I eventually found Super Save Propane, where they do not fill propane tanks!

But they do fill tanks at Integra Tire, using super save propane! Go figger!

Once that was all straightened out, we headed northward again, albeit a day later. Weather was still great, there were no bugs, and when time came to find a campsite, a nice lakefront private spot along Fox Lake appeared on cue. The access was much too steep for any trailers or bigger rigs, so once again I was glad to have the truck camper on.

There was a small fire circle there and lots of available wood, so a small campfire was in order.

There were a few merganzers, loons, and a magpie that seemed to like my bird call recordings, courtesy of the National Geographic bird app! The ice was literally just breaking up and a few small ice floes floated by, disintegrating every minute. At another location, bears had tried and failed to break into a bear-proof garbage bunker, covering it with muddy footprints.

Some days, it’s tough being a small grey cat on the road. … But, today isn’t one of those days!

Further up the road, we visited Carmacks, a historic spot on the Yukon river, where a number of the original structures are still standing.

Further north, the Five Finger rapids was a formidable obstacle to the sternwheelers that plied the river in the gold rush era. Before blasting a deeper channel, the boats had to winch themselves up over the drop using a cable anchored to the shore upstream. There is a long stairway of 217 steps leading down to the river for a closer look.

That evening (it’s hard to call it ‘evening’ when the sun doesn’t go down till well after 10pm, and it’s light all night), after checking out a few alternate options, and driving down a long very narrow road through the bush, we found a great spot high up with a view over the Yukon river at an abandoned hunting or fishing camp.

I think I was in this same area back in 2009 when Al from the Bayfield Bunch realized that myself and Wandering Willy were both travelling in the same area of the Yukon! Since then of course, I have met up with them both many times, and at least once all three bloggers were camped together near Bouse, Az. Next – on to Dawson City!

I am envious of your current journey. Except for the tire issue and have struggled with those under the rig spares. Someday after I quit working summers a trip this far north is on the list. Wonderful wildlife sightings. Nice to know there are many places to boondock along the way, with a small rig anyway.

Update:

Still have blogger setup problems that are not cured, and Google appears to have no interest in curing the errors! They have no idea what the error codes refer to, and don't seem to care. In the meantime, I have removed the majority of my posts from this blog and placed them in a new blog location -